Graphical user interfaces provide an icon-oriented and/or menu-driven environment for allowing a user to interact with an operating system running on a user's computer. Many graphical user interfaces include a windowing environment and a desktop. A windowing environment presents the user with specially delineated areas called windows on a display, each of which is dedicated to a particular application program, file or document. The windows can typically be re-sized, moved around on the display, and stacked so as to overlay other windows. The windowing environment allows windows to be increased to a full-screen display or minimized, meaning the window is reduced to and denoted by an icon.
The desktop displays icons representing programs, files and resources available to the user. As such, the desktop acts as a launching point for running application programs, opening documents or files, and initiating operating system services. The desktop cannot be minimized or closed. Instead, the desktop always remains as a full-screen background display upon which windows overlay.
The desktop in many graphical user interfaces is based on a desktop metaphor, wherein the desktop is a graphical work surface analogous to a surface of a desk. Similarly, windows overlay the desktop in the graphical user interface analogous to papers or files laying on top of the desk.
One area that may use a graphical user interface is Internet-based applications. The Internet is a worldwide collection of cooperating computer networks. A user typically accesses the Internet through a "client" computer. The client computer communicates with a "server" computer on a remote computer network using telephone, ISDN, or T1 lines or similar physical connections. The server computer may download content (e.g., images, text, application programs, etc.) to the client computer for viewing or execution by the user.
The client and server computers communicate through software protocols, such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Gopher, etc. Currently HTTP is the most widely used protocol and is used for accessing the World Wide Web.
The World Wide Web is a portion of the Internet consisting of server computers, also referred to as "sites," which make multi-media documents (often referred to as content) in HTML format generally available for downloading or retrieval by individuals having a computer with Internet access. The documents are generally created in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and displayed on a user's computer. HTML documents support embedded hyperlinks that reference other locations (folder, FTP site, other HTML documents, etc.) The user's computer retrieves and displays documents associated with the other location when the user activates a hyperlink by clicking on the hyperlink or pressing an appropriate keystroke.
Uniform Resource Locators (URL) are used in conjunction with hyperlinks to identify the referenced location. URLs typically define a protocol to be used, a domain name of a server computer, a port address to be used for communication, and a directory path to access a desired document. Thus, when a user activates a hyperlink, the user's computer uses a URL to establish communication with a server computer designated in the URL and displays a document retrieved from the server.
HTML also allows graphical images to be embedded in HTML documents. When a graphical image is embedded in an HTML document, the dimensions or size of the embedded graphical image may be defined with HTML statements. For example, the size of an embedded graphical image may be defined in HTML by &lt;IMG SRC="file.gif" WIDTH=X HEIGHT=Y&gt;, where IMG is an HTML tag referencing an embedded image, SRC="file.gif" defines the location and name of the file containing the graphical image embedded in the HTML document, (e.g., a Graphics Information file or *.GIF) and X,Y are the respective width and height of the graphical image measured in pixels.
Software object components also may be used with HTML documents for displaying executable content, such as for animations or information processing. Currently, most Internet browsers support embedded software object components in the form of ActiveX controls, Java applets, and Visual Basic Scripts. These software object components are embedded into HTML documents using the &lt;Insert&gt; or &lt;Object&gt; HTML tags.
The above-described protocols and HTML documents are the underlying structure for many Internet-based applications. One such Internet-based application achieving wide-spread success is called Internet broadcasting. Internet broadcasting effectively turns a computer into a high-tech television set, allowing a client computer to change "channels" for displaying news, sports scores, stock charts, weather updates and other kinds of information which are downloaded from the Internet. The information displayed for the channels is dynamically updated, such as through scheduled or manually initiated downloads.
One provider of an Internet broadcasting application is PointCast Inc. PointCast provides an Internet broadcast application on its Internet site (http://www.pointcast.com) that a user can download to the user's computer. The Internet broadcast application executes as a windowed application on the user's computer. In the application's window, the Pointcast application displays a channel viewer. The channel viewer contains different panes for organizing and reading news. One pane lists a collection of channels encompassing such topics as companies, industries, life styles, news, and sports. When a user activates a channel, a second pane is displayed showing a list of current stories relating to the selected channel. If a user activates a story, the full text for that story is displayed on a third pane. The PointCast application also includes what is called a "SmartScreen" that is triggered after a preset period of inactivity (as in a screen saver). SmartScreen launches a collection of headlines, sports scores, and stock tickers.
The PointCast application has several drawbacks. For example, all of the content displayed is delivered from a single server computer called the Internet broadcasting server (e.g., the PointCast server), rather than directly from content providers that create the content. Thus, the information provided is only as up-to-date as the Internet broadcasting server. Additionally, if a user is interested in viewing content that is not available on the Internet broadcasting server, there is no means for integrating that content into the Internet broadcast. For example, content from other Internet server computers, Intranet server computers, server computers on Local Area Networks (LAN), and the client computer itself, cannot be integrated into the broadcast. The content displayed also lacks hyperlinks referencing documents on other server computers and allowing a user to obtain more information about an item displayed in the Internet Broadcast.
Additionally, the PointCast application is displayed in one of many possible open windows. Returning to the desktop metaphor, a user may find it difficult to find documents, such as papers or files, lying on top of a desk when the desk is cluttered with such documents. Similarly, in windows environments wherein a user can have a plurality of windows opened simultaneously, the user may lose track of which window a particular application is displayed. Being opened in a window, the PointCast application is susceptible to this problem.
The present invention provides a ticker display pane as part of a desktop on a client computer. The desktop is called an "active" desktop because data is animated (e.g., scrolling) in the ticker display pane. The ticker data is updated automatically by retrieving the data directly from content providers. The ticker data also may contain hyperlinks and be sourced from multiple servers on multiple networks.
In one aspect of the invention, a client computer provides a ticker display pane as part of the desktop for displaying data, such as stock prices, sport scores, and messages. The data is displayed in a substantially continuous sequence of discrete data items that are animated in the ticker display pane. For example, the data items may scroll across the ticker display pane or flash onto the display pane all at once, filling the display pane. Because the ticker display pane is part of or integrated into the desktop, the user does not need to open a separate window to display the data items. Additionally, the user always knows the location of the ticker display on the desktop, as opposed to the ticker display being lost as one of many possible open windows.
In another aspect of the invention, the data is retrieved from one or more source computers (i.e., multiple providers), which may be located on different computer networks. For example, server computers may be Internet, Intranet or LAN server computers. Additionally, information from multiple topic areas, such as sports, entertainment, stocks, and intercorporate messages can be integrated into the substantially continuous sequence of data items. In this aspect of the invention, the ticker display pane may or may not be part of the desktop (e.g., the ticker may be in a separate window).
In another aspect of the invention, the data retrieved contains hyperlinks, thereby allowing a user to select a hyperlink to retrieve and display another document (e.g., folder, HTTP or FTP site, other HTML documents, etc.) designated by the hyperlink.
In yet another aspect of the invention, a source identifier may be integrated into the desktop. The source identifier displays an image associated with the source of the data items currently displayed on the ticker display. The source identifier may include a hyperlink. Upon activating the hyperlink (e.g., clicking on the source identifier), the system retrieves and displays a document on a server computer associated with the hyperlink. The source identifier may further be an HTML page allowing the content provider to place advertisements and other information in a display space for the source identifier.
Thus, using the present invention, rich multimedia data is dynamically integrated directly into the desktop on a client computer. The data may be provided from multiple server computers on multiple networks, such as Internet servers, Intranet servers, LAN servers, etc. Further, the data may include hyperlinks allowing the user to browse to related documents on a computer network. Finally, the data displayed is the most up-to-date content, since it is provided directly from the content providers.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following detailed description of an illustrated embodiment which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.